Saturday, June 11, 2011

I saw Star Wars in Concert on June 4th at the Hollywood Bowl

Anthony Daniels was an awesome narrator of the Star Wars story. He's done this performance several times over by now, but there wasn't the slightest bit of repetition fatigue.

The two shows, Friday and Saturday, were sold out, and it's really worth it for any fan. So far, these were the only dates for 2011, but I do hope they give cities that haven't had the chance to see it before a shot. Getting a DVD of it wouldn't come close to capturing the show.

I will say, though, merchandise - ouch! I got a program for $25 and they were selling t-shirts for $35. Not surprising, but still, yikes.

The lack of exhibit was a bummer (the Bowl doesn't have room for it), but once we got into the show, we weren't really thinking about it. We could see most of the video screen, except there is some kind of thing that hangs down the front of the arch of the Bowl and from our view, it was in front of a lot of faces in the video. We know all the scenes, of course, so we knew what we'd see, but if people were new then it probably wasn't good for them. The show was originally designed to play in arenas, so I'm not entirely sure why they picked the Bowl for this, but the sound was great. We did have fun...just not perfect fun. People in the center seats got a great show, and kids definitely seemed to enjoy it no matter where they were.
And the surprise?

John Williams came out at the end to conduct The Imperial March. JOHN WILLIAMS!!! It was at the very end of the concert, and Anthony Daniels gestures for us to sit and quiet down so he can tell us something. "We have a very special guest" and then it's John Williams. Crowd went freaking wild. A few people had already started to leave, and I'm like WTH five minutes is not going to get you out of the parking lot any faster. You can see a vid here.